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New Racist, Homophobic Texts Emerge In Ongoing SFPD Scandal

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – As the San Francisco police continue to deal with scandals involving racist and homophobic texts, inflammatory new messages emerged from a former officer on Tuesday.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi released the disturbing text messages reportedly sent to and from Officer Jason Lai with a press release Tuesday. Among the slurs allegedly used were a derogatory term for Hispanics, a shortened version of the n-word, a misspelled Cantonese slur for blacks, and a message calling Indian people “disgusting.”

“It is chilling how casually former officer Lai dehumanizes the citizens he was sworn to serve,” Adachi said. “He wished violence upon the very people he was being paid to protect and none of his colleagues turned him in.”

The messages on Lai’s phone were discovered after he was accused of raping a woman while off-duty. Investigators said they couldn’t find enough evidence to charge him with sexual assault, but he was charged with illegally accessing the alleged victim’s DMV records.

In addition to Lai, prosecutors have named two current SFPD officers in the most recent texting scandal—Curtis Liu and Keith Ybaretta. Their messages have not been provided to the public defender.

“It would be naive to believe these officers’ bigotry was reserved solely for text messages,” Adachi said in the press release. “It is a window into the biases they harbored. It likely influenced who they stopped, who they searched, who they arrested, and how they testified in criminal trials.”

Mayor Ed Lee addressed this latest case Tuesday morning, saying he doesn’t believe this reflects the city as a whole.

“We will not tolerate any police officers who evidence this kind of racism, this kind of anti-San Francisco, and still be a police officer in uniform for this city,” said Lee.

Lai is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of illegally accessing DMV records on May 3rd. He resigned from the police department earlier this month after officials found the offensive text messages.